Mini Mario & Friends amiibo Challenge Preview

Nintendo is taking the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series in a new direction with Mini Mario & Friends amiibo Challenge. This free to play game is coming to both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS and is one of the first games to require amiibo to play. There are over 60 different courses to play, each with varying levels of difficulty. What’s really cool is that tapping certain amiibo will allow you to play as him or her and grant you special powers. In fact, some of them will even unlock special stages that revolve around their unique abilities.

To be clear, you can tap any amiibo to play any of the basic levels. You will control Mini Spek, a little wind-up robot that makes his way through the puzzling courses. Those that have the specific amiibo shown below will unlock even more areas and new gameplay mechanics.

The game releases on April 28 on the eShop, but in an interesting twist you can get the game a month early (March 25) by purchasing any amiibo figure from GameStop, Amazon, or Best Buy. Doing so will generate a special unlock code that you can redeem in the eShop to play the game early.

Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.